Americans are glum at the moment. No, I mean really glum. In April, a new poll revealed that 81 percent of the American people believe that the country is on the ‘wrong track.’ In the 25 years that pollsters have asked this question, last month’s response was by far the most negative. Other polls, asking similar questions, found levels of gloom that were even more alarming, often at 30- and 40-year highs. There are reasons to be pessimistic-a financial panic and looming recession, a seemingly endless war in Iraq, and the ongoing threat of terrorism. But the facts on the ground-unemployment numbers, foreclosure rates, deaths from terror attacks-are simply not dire enough to explain the present atmosphere of malaise. American anxiety springs from something much deeper, a sense that large and disruptive forces are coursing through the world. In almost every industry, in every aspect of life, it feels like the patterns of the past are being scrambled. ‘Whirl is king, having driven out Zeus,’ wrote Aristophanes 2,400 years ago. And-for the first time in living memory-the United States does not seem to be leading the charge. Americans see that a new world is coming into being, but fear […]
The Federal Communications Commission capped a subsidy program that helps fund cell phone coverage in rural areas. In a 3-2 vote on Thursday, the FCC said it would limit payments to wireless carriers seeking funds from the Universal Service Fund to help subsidize the cost of providing cell phone service in rural areas. The USF, which is supported by a tax on long-distance and regular subscriber line charges paid by wireless, Internet, and traditional phone customers, has been temporarily capped after the program paid nearly $1.12 billion last year to phone companies operating in rural areas. In 2001, the fund paid out only $15 million. The increase in funding has led to higher taxes on phone bills for consumers. Congress is currently working on reforming the USF. And the cap ensures that rates remain at March 2008 levels until the reform package is complete. Regulators hope capping the fund now will help slow the increase of charges being added to consumers’ phone bills. The fund was created by Congress as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which essentially overhauled telecommunication law and regulations. The purpose of the fund was to ensure that all Americans had access […]
ANCHORAGE — Alaska’s state legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon – researchers just have to fill in the science part. A $2 million program funded with little debate by the legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an ‘academic based’ conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears’ survival. Republican legislative leaders say a federal decision to declare the polar bears ‘threatened’ by climate change would have troubling effects on Arctic oil development and the state’s economic future. Last week a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to release its already-tardy decision under the Endangered Species Act by May 15. By law, such a decision must be based strictly on science, not on possible economic consequences. Legislative leaders said they are frustrated that researchers skeptical of the doomsday scenario get marginalized as crackpots or industry shills by the media and scientific agencies. Critics say it’s a waste of state money because all the hard […]
Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry. The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world’s poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution. The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world’s richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn. Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year […]
WASHINGTON — Low-oxygen zones where sea life is threatened or cannot survive are growing as the oceans are heated by global warming, researchers warn. Oxygen-depleted zones in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans appear to have expanded over the last 50 years, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. Low-oxygen zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas also have been studied in recent years, raising concerns about the threat to sea life. Continued expansion of these zones could have dramatic consequences for both sea life and coastal economies, said the team led by Lothar Stramma of the University of Kiel in Germany. The finding was not surprising, Stramma said, because computer climate models had predicted a decline in dissolved oxygen in the oceans under warmer conditions. Warmer water simply cannot absorb as much oxygen as colder water, explained co-author Gregory C. Johnson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. There are complex biological and chemical interactions in these low-oxygen regions, Stramma said, adding that this needs to be more closely studied. Frank A. Whitney of Canada’s Institute of Ocean […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
